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To Miss Mitford

43 Via Bocca di Leone, Rome:  March 19, 1854.

My dearest Miss Mitford,—­Your letter made my heart ache.  It is sad, sad indeed, that you should have had this renewed cold just as you appeared to be rallying a little from previous shocks, and I know how depressing and enfeebling a malady the influenza is.  It’s the vulture finishing the work of the wolf.  I pray God that, having battled through this last attack, you may be gradually strengthened and relieved by the incoming of the spring (though an English spring makes one shiver to think of generally), and with the summer come out into the garden, to sit in a chair and be shone upon, dear, dear friend.  I shall be in England then, and get down to see you this time, and I tenderly hold to the dear hope of seeing you smile again, and hearing you talk in the old way....

We see a good deal of the Kembles here, and like them both, especially the Fanny, who is looking magnificent still, with her black hair and radiant smile.  A very noble creature, indeed.  Somewhat unelastic, unpliant to the eye, attached to the old modes of thought and convention, but noble in quality and defects; I like her much.  She thinks me credulous and full of dreams, but does not despise me for that reason, which is good and tolerant of her, and pleasant, too, for I should not be quite easy under her contempt.  Mrs. Sartoris is genial and generous, her milk has had time to stand to cream, in her happy family relations.  The Sartoris’s house has the best society at Rome, and exquisite music, of course.  We met Lockhart there, and my husband sees a good deal of him—­more than I do, because of the access of cold weather lately which has kept me at home chiefly.  Robert went down to the seaside in a day’s excursion with him and the Sartoris’s; and, I hear, found favor in his sight.  Said the critic:  ’I like Browning, he isn’t at all like a damned literary man.’  That’s a compliment, I believe, according to your dictionary.  It made me laugh and think of you directly.  I am afraid Lockhart’s health is in a bad state; he looks very ill, and every now and then his strength seems to fail.  Robert has been sitting for his picture to Fisher, the English artist, who painted Mr. Kenyon and Landor; you remember those pictures in Mr. Kenyon’s house?  Landor’s was praised much by Southey.  Well, he has painted Robert, and it is an admirable likeness.[32] The expression is an exceptional expression, but highly characteristic; it is one of Fisher’s best works.  Now he is about our Wiedeman, and if he succeeds as well in painting angels as men, will do something beautiful with that seraphic face.  You are to understand that these works are done by the artist for the artist.  Oh, we couldn’t afford to have such a luxury as a portrait done for us.  But I am pleased to have a good likeness of each of my treasures extant in the possession